Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

The automobile gear lever is used in the automobile transmission, and its main function is to support the shift of the car. Nowadays, more and more cars choose to cancel the gear lever setting and adopt a more concise and technological ultra-short lever (knob shift) or push-button shift.

For example, in several new cars that just appeared on the market not long ago, although FAW-Volkswagen patrol is called "lever-type electronic shift lever", the rod length is almost negligible, so it is more appropriate to call it knob shift. Beijing Hyundai's new Festa N Line, which plays the main sport, directly uses a button shift, completely stripping off the traditional genes of sports cars.

In the view of many people, canceling the gear gear will lose the fun, it is forgetting its roots, and it means that it cannot accept the change. Why car companies do not pay attention to these voices, or insist on promoting the new design, let's analyze it together today.

How much fun can gears add? Throughout history, the gear lever is not inherently inseparable from the car, and the gear is not interesting at first.

Mercedes-Benz one, for example, has a simple "gear" that can be used to move forward and park. At that time, I didn't even understand the steering wheel, and my left hand had to pay attention to the pole, so the gear was not fun.

The Ford Model T, as a milestone in human industry, did not have a gear lever at first, but controlled its speed through three pedals (high speed, low speed, and backing). The handle behind the steering wheel of this car is actually throttle.

It turns out that when some people criticize forgetting their roots, people a hundred years ago didn't care at all. Of course, we can't deny the fun of the block. Manual gears will not help you arrange power output as automatic gears do, but will do as you wish.

So often in the same car, some people just can't understand how to drive, but another person can fly. Even when Fujiwara Takumi put on the new racing engine, he pondered the timing of changing gears for a long time, and in the end, Fujiwara pointed out that it would take 11000 rpm to give full play to its real strength.

Engine torque output is related to rotational speed, because different adjustments, various engine torque curves will be different, because 86 is used to run the mountain path, adjusted to high turn to high torque can have better corner performance.

The 86 modified engine is the TRD version of 4A-GEU, and the engine originally used on the AE101 is Toyota's racing engine, with an engine capacity of only 1.6L, but the highest speed has reached 13000rpm, so you have to talk to people who love to drive manual about their understanding of the gear. he can talk to you day and night. But the reality is very cruel, with the popularity of automatic block, the number of real manual block users is very limited. Of the 11.7 million new cars sold in the US in 2019, 120000 (1.1 per cent) were equipped with manual transmissions, according to J.D. Power and Green Car Report. Sales of new cars with manual transmissions are 0.5% lower than in 2018, and most of them are used in the lowest-equipped models.

The same is true in China. Last month, it was announced that Volkswagen Transmission (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. planned to formally stop production of manual transmissions at the end of March next year. There was a public outcry. With the electrified transformation of the automobile industry, manual transmissions are becoming less and less popular.

Although the fuel truck is still using the electronic shift lever, but at this time the automatic transmission brings people little fun to control. The electronic shift lever omits the traditional mechanical shift mode and is replaced by electronic signals, so the position of the gear lever will not move during the shift. Although the block handle can be made very beautifully, the integration of people and cars is much less fun.

The corresponding relationship between automatic gear and speed has been set for you, and there is no room for you to refute it. Keeping the grip is more like a symbol of cultural habits without a stopper, what do we get? As the saying goes, there are losses and gains, there is no gear lever, cars also have a new experience, but also give birth to some new changes. With regard to the following, it has happened or is happening.

(1) the fun is proportional to the difficulty of design because the gear is the most commonly used part, and its ergonomics is very demanding. For example, after experiencing Accord, you will feel that the CRV has to reach for the gear, and the comfort will be worse.

It takes a lot of work to make the shift lever comfortable. In particular, some global cars should pay more attention to ergonomic optimization, otherwise it will be very awkward to use. This is like ready-to-wear design, the dummy model is a benchmark, if the benchmark is not the same, do you think Asians will look good in European clothes?

The same is true of cars, which should be tailored to suit their clothes.

Take a published paper by the Pan Asia Automotive Technology Center, which mentioned that most of the relevant HVI standards for domestic cars are based on the SAE human body, but studies have shown that there are obvious differences in driving habits between Asians and Europeans and Europeans, and there are also differences in height, size and body-to-body ratio between the Chinese body and the SAE body.

With regard to the ergonomic requirements of the gear lever, the loudest call is that "the gear position is moderate and there is no need to bend down to operate", which involves the optimization of the front and rear position of the gear lever, the gear height, the inclination angle of the gear lever and the gear operation space. Therefore, if manufacturers want to satisfy people in various markets, they should optimize according to local needs. But this will lead to an increase in time costs and design costs. If you choose to cancel the gear lever and use push-button shift or push-button shift, this problem will not exist.

(2) reducing the probability of abnormal noise or even damage of the gear bar the longer the cantilever height is, the more likely it is to appear abnormal noise on the bumpy road after long-term use. Why do you say that? you can take two rulers of different lengths, hold one end of the ruler in your hand, and shake them with the same force. A ruler of 50 centimeters will shake more than a ruler of 20 centimeters.

If you use push-button shift or push-button, the possibility of abnormal noise will be greatly reduced. The long rod type is more prone to loose screws, bolts and nuts (one of the key causes of abnormal noise and damage).

In engineering language, it belongs to abnormal vibration. For example, the following figure is for the vibration durability test of the gear bar. In the room temperature environment, the vibration frequency 60Hz and vibration acceleration 4.4G are carried out for 4 hours in the vertical direction, transverse direction and longitudinal direction respectively. Doing this level of testing can basically simulate the state of the product after three years of use. From the test results, there is indeed a product failure or damage.

In fact, electronic gear to eliminate manual gear also has similar benefits, intermediate cars as the first to cancel the mechanical gear lever camp, one of the purposes is to improve the NVH.

This is due to the fact that the electronic gear bar is a means to isolate the vibration of the transmission system, which cuts off the hard link between the transmission system and the crew cabin and cuts off the vibration of the powertrain from the physical structure. Today's knob-type or knob-type shift further optimizes the NVH.

In addition, it is not only abnormal noise, friends who have used the old gear shifter complain most about the tear of the leather cover of the gear shifter. In fact, manufacturers have considered this phenomenon in their research and development, for example, the following are the requirements of a certain car company:

First, 3900 cycles were carried out at low temperature, and then 630000 cycles were carried out at room temperature. The specific times of each gear cycle are as follows, and the loading speed is 300mm / s. After the test, the fracture of the shift sheath is observed. The purpose of this practice is to simulate the state of the car after going through a variety of environments and uses.

In view of this problem, some car companies with strict quality requirements can rest assured that as long as it is not used violently, there will be no cracks for 3-5 years. However, it does not rule out that some manufacturers do not pay much attention to the quality problems that will break out at a later stage. So why not just cancel the gear lever? This not only has no aftereffects, but also makes the interior more scientific and technological.

(3) there is a lack of an anti-theft method, but the scientific and technological scheme has appeared that the gear lock is installed on the handle of the gear lever, so that the gear rod can not be moved, even if it starts the engine, it is difficult to drive away.

But now cars have begun to use Sentinel mode. When the vehicle is parked, the owner can view the video information of the camera around the car in real time through the mobile phone. Once the vehicle is collided or moved, the external camera will record the environment around the vehicle and notify the owner through the mobile phone App / SMS. At the same time, you can also view the video on the car machine.

In short, the change of gear shifter not only gives the middle channel more open space, but also echoes the sense of science and technology, but also beneficial to product quality, reliability and ergonomic design. It is not surprising that manufacturers are willing to push it.

It is concluded that the demise of the gear lever is the result of the times, and it has successfully completed its mission. In fact, the new gear shift is not useless, in addition to the general perception of highlighting the sense of technology, there are many engineering reasons for adopting it. Through the above introduction, I believe you will have a new understanding that these changes are not necessarily a bad thing for car companies and consumers.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: autocarweekly (ID:autocarweekly), article: No. 7-Song

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.